World of Skiing:

Retraction

One of the things that can happen on the steeps is that you can get a rapid pressure build up. And a pressure build up can sometimes feel like you get stuck on one side of the turn or the other.

So, one way to deal with that is with a little retraction, and that's where you actually pull your feet up at the end of the turn, side to side. See? Increase the pressure, retract. Increase the pressure, retract.

And what I do when I retract is I pull my feet up underneath me. What it feels like to me is I push my feet down the hill and then I pull them back up. And this approach works really well when you want quick increase of pressure, and then dealing with that, so you don't get stuck on this side of the skis. What you do is you kind of pull the feet up like that. You let the feet come back underneath you, so you can push them out the other side.

I push em down and I pull em back up in between. Press down. Pull up. Press down. Pull up. Retraction, we call it. So, if you can get the rhythm going that's great, it can be really helpful in a steep slope where you get large increases of pressure, and by retracting you eliminate that pressure. Helps you to maintain the rhythm.

Push the feet, down, pull em up. Down, pull em up. Down, pull em up, and retract in between each turn. Retract the feet. And that's the way that I like to ski on the steep slopes. And I want to thank my old pal, norman crites the master of retraction for reminding me of that one. Give it a whirl. I hope it works for you.